Method for removing the meat from king crab legs



Sept. 22, 1964 D. v. ANDERSON ETAL 9,

METHOD FOR REMOVING THE MEAT FROM KING CRAB LEGS Original Filed March20, 1961 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG....

DONALD V. ANDERSON JAMES G. GiLLMAN INVENTOR.

Sept. 22, 1964 D. v. ANDERSON ETAL 3,149,371

METHOD FOR REMOVING THE MEAT FROM KING CRAB LEGS Original Filed March20, 1961 s Sheets-Sheet 2 V. ANDERSON JAMES G. GILLMAN INVENTOR.

Wax-@1444 8 A TTORNEV Sept. 22, 1964 D. v. ANDERSON ETAL 3,149,371

METHOD FOR REMOVING THE MEAT FROM KING CRAB LEGS Original Filed March20, 1961 6 SheetsSheet 3 DONALD V. ANDERSON JAMES G. GILLMAN INVENTOR.

14 TI'ORNE V Sept. 22, 1964 D. v. ANDERSON ETAL METHOD FOR REMOVING THEMEAT FROM KING CRAB LEGS 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Original Filed March 20, 1961INVENTOR.

DONALD V. ANDERSON JAMES G GILLMAN ATTORNEY Sept. 22, 1964 D. v.ANDERSON ETAL 3,149,371

METHOD FOR REMOVING THE MEAT FROM KING CRAB LEGS Original Filed March20, 1961 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 DONALD V. AN DERSON JAMES G. GiLLMAN INVENTOR.

A TTOKNEV Sept. 22, 1964 D. v. ANDERSON ETAL 3,149,371

METHOD FOR REMOVING THE MEAT FROM KING CRAB LEGS 6 Sheets-Sheet 6Original Filed March 20, 1961 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,149,371METHOD FUR REWGVING THE MEAT FROM KEJG CRAB LEGS Donald V. Anderson,RAE. Cannery, Lazy Bay, Aiitak, Kodiak Island, Alaska, and James G.Gillman, 113 Lake St., Kirkland, Wash, assignors of thirty percent toWayne Luders and ten percent to Paul D. Jackson Original application 2Q,1961, Ser. No. 97,090. Divided and this application May 3, 1963, er. N277,893

6 Claims. ((31. 17-45) The method of the present invention relates tothe removal of meat from king crab legs, such as by utilization of thedevice disclosed in this application and our copending applicationSerial No. 97,090, filed March 20, 1961, and now abandoned, for Devicefor Removing the Meat From King Crab Legs, of which this application isa division.

More specifically this method comprises squeezing the meat out of thelong legs of king crabs by passing them between cooperatingresiliently-faced rollers. The axes on which such cooperating rollersrevolve are fixed with respect to each other. The machine preferablycombines two coacting pairs of rollers, one pair of which is in contactthroughout its length to accept the long section of the leg and thesecond coacting pair is spaced apart, still on fixed spacings, to acceptthe large knuckle portion at the large end of the leg and the claws,both of which are larger in diameter than the legs of the crab. Meanscan be combined with such rollers for the accurate and remote feeding ofthe crab parts into the coacting pairs of rollers and means can beprovided for the proper orientation of the legs just before they arepresented to the roller. Alternatively, the crab leg can be fed to andoriented with respect to the rollers by hand.

In the past the removal of the edible meat from the king crab legs haspresented a most unusual problem which heretofore has been met largelyby hand operation, which is very wasteful of the crab meat; the handoperation is normally aided only by supplying some means for introducinga jet of air, or preferably of water at the small end of the leg, whichwas cut oil for this purpose, and in this way the meat was blown out ofthe legs. This means, however, presented a considerable problem asapplying pressure to the end of a column of meat which might be fromtwelve to eighteen inches long caused a compacting of the meat and addedto the dithculty of forcing it out of the long tubular shell. A furthercomphcation was caused by the presence of long tough tendons throughoutthe length of the legs. The meat of the crab legs is largely muscularand to tie these muscles to the joints of the legs so that the jointscan be manipulated, nature has provided long tough tendons which can belikened to the large tendons of a turkey leg, except that those of theking crab are longer. These tendons are themselves tapering and thelarge end is secured to the shell of the leg with the free end of thetendon normally bonded to the muscles and extending upwardly to thelarge end of the crab leg. As a result of the difficulties involved inthe removal of the meat from the king crab legs, the average personcould remove only about sixty pounds of meat per hour, and a veryexperienced person, working under the most ideal conditions could onlyremove as much as one hundred pounds per hour.

It naturally follows that the necessity for so much manual labor in theremoval of the meat added materially, not only to the cost of processingthe meat, but also to the price paid by the ultimate consumer. The meatof the king crab is of good size and is an excellent 3,149,37l PatentedSept. 22, 1964 food, but the difliculty and expense of processing it hasin the past greatly curtailed its commercial sale. By the present methodwe have solved many of the problems encountered in this industry andthis should result in an appreciable reduction in the cost ofprocessing, which will in turn make this excellent food more generallyacceptable to the average family.

The principal object of this present invention, therefore, is to providea method in which resilient pressure is applied to the small end of thecrab leg by means of coacting rollers so that the meat will be squeezedout of the full length of the shell of one leg, normally in a singleconnected piece.

A further object of this invention is to provide a methed for thepressure expulsion of the edible meat from a crab leg wherein thepressure is applied to the meat at the large end of the various tendonsin the progressive removal of the same so that the meat is stripped offof the tendons and out of the shell, thus making it possible to obtainall of the meat from a single leg as one con nected piece.

A further object of this invention is to perform such method by the useof resiliently faced rollers which operate with a fixed spacing betweenthem.

A further object or" this invention is to present the small end of thecrab leg to the pressure rollers oriented in a manner to insure mostsatisfactory removal of the meat.

A further object or this invention is to utilize two coacting pairs ofrollers which are spaced apart, yet located close enough together that aperson can selectively feed a portion of a crab leg to the set ofrollers that can best extract the meat from the particular portion ofthe crab leg which he happens to have in hand at that instant.

FlGURE l is a side elevation of a crab leg meat extracting machine whichcan be utilized in the performance of the method of the presentinvention on legs of the crab after the knuckles have been removed, withparts broken vaway.

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the device shown in FIGURE 1 with certainparts removed for clarity in showing the belt arrangements.

FIGURE 3 is a transverse, vertical, sectional view taken along the line33 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a side elevation of a complete machine which may be utilizedin performing the method of the present invention, the equipment forhandling the legs of the crab having been broken away to avoidrepetition as it is similar in all respects to FIGURE 1. Above the crableg portion is the portion of the machine particularly adaptable forsqueezing the meat from the leg lmuckles and the claws of the king crab.

FIGURE 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the plurality of conveyingbelts and the drive and guiding means therefor used in conveying theknuckles and claws to the roller feeding position.

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged top plan view of the resilient guide means, ofwhich five units in all are employed.

FIGURE 7 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the rollers, the legconveying belts, the troughs for the meat and the shell and the waterjets, all in proper relationship to clearly show the relationship whichis not very clearly shown on the detailed drawings because of the greatamount of detail required.

FIGURE 8 is a diagrammatic view in elevation and taken from the side, asis FIGURE 7, showing the arrangement of the belts, the rollers, thewater jet and the meat and shell removing troughs as used in handlingthe knuckles and claws of king crabs.

FIGURE 9 is a longitudinal sectional view through that portion of a kingcrab leg which provides the bulk of the edible meat of the crab. Theview is to illustrate the shape of the leg so that the method ofremoving the meat therefrom will be better understood, and moreparticularly to illustrate the heavy tendons through which the meat isattached as muscle to operate the joints of the crab leg.

FIGURE is generally referred to as the knuckle of the crab leg and isthe portion that forms the swivel-like joint between the crab leg andthe crab body. This is normally broken off as illustrated in FIGURE 10and handled separately in the cleaning operation.

FIGURE 11 is an illustration of the right claw of the king crab.

FIGURE 12 is an illustrative view showing the left claw which habituallyis smaller in size than the master claw shown in FIGURE 11.

FIGURE 13 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 13-13 of FIGURE3.

In the device illustrated in the drawings, which is suitable forperforming the method of the present invention, it is desirable to havea substantial metal fabricated frame indicated generally by the numeral10. This frame is provided with a plurality of vertical members 12 and anumber of transverse members 13 and longitudinal members 14. Thetransverse members, in addition to completing the framework, provide themounting means for much of the equipment, including the motor M. Thesimplest form of the machine is illustrated in FIGURE 1 and this machineprovides the essential mechanism. and associated parts for squeezing themeat out of the long king crab legs, whose conformation is indicated at15 in FIGURE 9. These legs are relatively long, usually 18 to inches inoverall length. FIGURE 4 illustrates means which may be employed in themethod of this invention for squeezing the meat out of the knuckles,which are the ends of the legs forming the joints where they are securedto the central body of the crab. These knuckles are often an inch and ahalf or more in diameter, whereas the average diameter of the crab legitself varies from about one-half inch at the small end to an inch atthe large end where the knuckle is broken off. In addition to the thickknuckle portions, the claws of the crab, as is common also with theDungeness and similar types of crabs, are relatively short, but againquite thick in diameter. Experience has shown that it is impractical inmany instances to utilize the same set of rollers for removing the meat,both from the crab legs and from the thicker portions, such as theknuckles and claws. Further, as the crab legs are given to the workmen,they are normally complete and the knuckles are broken off the leg. Itis consequently most economical of both time and effort if the leg canbe fed between the rollers of one set and the knuckles and claws fedbetween the rollers of another set within easy reach of the individualhandling the complete leg. It is for this reason that one of thepreferred forms of the equipment, as shown in FIGURE 4, is a combinationincluding two sets of rollers which can be utilized selectively for theexpeditious removal of the meat from the entire crab legs, including theclaws.

The rollers best suited for removing the meat from the crab legs areillustrated in FIGURES 1, 2 and 3, FIGURE 1 being a side elevationpartly broken away, FIGURE 2 being a top plan view, and FIGURE 3 across-sectional view taken along the line 33 of FIGURE 2. Revolvablymounted in bearings secured to the vertical frame members 12 are tworubber-faced rolls 16 and 18. These rolls are normally run with theirperipheries in reasonably firm contact to provide a V at 19, shown bestin FIGURE 7, so that the rolls can engage the very tip of the crab legswhich are long and tapering and finally end in a very small point 17. Areasonably small diameter is indicated as desirable for these rolls witha four inch outside diameter proving quite satisfatcory in use. Roll ersof thisdiameter have the facility for crushing the 4 shell of the crableg at a reasonably sharp angle so that its pressure has the effect ofbeing applied at the end of the meat column, rather than on each side ofthe crab leg where it might tend to crush the meat and break it intoundesirably small particles. The covering for the rolls may be anyresilient material having the general properties of No. 20 temper ofNeoprene rubber. It is of course well known that there are manyexcellent substitutes for rubber, among the synthetics or plastics. Itis essential that the material be relatively dense so that there are novoids which would tend to fill up with small particles of crabmeat andthe like. A controlling minimum thickness of the rubber covering is thefact that the two rubber coverings, one on roller 16 and the other onroller 18, must be capable of resiliently surrounding the crab legsufficiently to grip it and feed it between the rollers. Also, to enablethe covering of the rollers to yield suficiently for the leg joints topass between the rollers, each covering should be in excess of one-halfof an inch in thickness so that the combined thickness of the rubberlayers on the two rollers would be equal to at least one inch. Thesecoverings are indicated at 20 and 21.

The rollers are preferably provided with end bearings and revolvablysupported in block type bearings, slidable in the slot 22 in thevertical frame member 12. These bearings have not been fully illustratedas such constructions are believed to be very well known. A satisfactorymethod is to have the bearings for the shaft of roller 18 come to thelower end of slot 22 with the bearings for roller 16 sliding down slot22 until the peripheries of the rubber rolls engage each other. Afollower screw 24 is then tightened so that the upper bearings cannot beraised if, for instance, four legs should enter the machine at the sametime. Otherwise these legs might tend to separate these two rollers.Screw 24 is preferably threaded into the fixed-in place threaded block26. In this connection it is found that it is not desirable to employany resilient member in this assembly which might permit the rollers tospread apart; but rather to provide and rely upon adequate resiliency ofthe coating of both rollers so that each part of the crab leg will befully engaged as it passes between the rollers and thus a completeexpulsion of the meat will be achieved.

Any form of motor drive may be employed for driving rolls 16 and 18; theone illustrated in FIGURES 1, 3 and 4 has proven quite satisfactory.This employs an electric motor M which drives the reduction gear element28 so that a high torque factor is obtained. A sprocket 29 is fixedlysecured to the shaft of roller 18 and connected to the drive sprocket 30secured on the output shaft 27 of the reduction gear 28. The connectingchain 31 provides a flexible and adequate drive means which keeps themotor well out of the way of the work parts. Where the coacting rollersdo not touch, it may be desirable to connect the rolls by coacting gearsas 11 and 11a.

Supported from the end framing, composed essentially of the verticalmembers 12 and transverse frame members 13, are brackets to hold themeat collecting trough 32 and the shell collecting trough 33. Thesetroughs are preferably disposed at a slight down grade so that a streamof water introduced at 34 or 35 will flush all the meat and the shellrespectively outside of the machine where the shells can be disposed ofby any convenient means and the meat can be collected on screens, notshown, as the water passes through the screen. Floating the meat awayfrom the machine is highly desirable in that it does not tend to breakup the large long pieces of meat which in most cases will be the entirecolumn of meat contained in the individual leg. Having fixed, heavilypowered rollers, means must be provided to prevent a workman fromgetting his hand or clothing between the rollers and this is amply takencare of by guide means and water spray means which will be describedlater.

In order to bring the crab legs to the pressure rollers, from a pointaway from the machine, longitudinal members 14 are provided which inturn are normally secured to both the vertical and transverse framemembers 12 and 13 as by welding thereto. Journaled in bearings 36, whichare secured to secondary vertical frame member 12a, is a lower pulleyshaft 38 and an upper pulley shaft 49. These shafts, in the form of ourmachine illustrated, each have mounted thereon four belt pulleys 42. Atthe opposite end of the machine there are again two separate pulleyshafts as 43 and 44. These shafts are provided at each side withadjustable take-up devices .5 so that the belts which are operativelysupported by the shafts 38 and 44 and 4t and 43, respectively, can beadjusted for proper tension. Referring particularly to FIGURE 1, it willbe noted that the upper run of platform belts 46 and the lower run ofpositioning belts 48 both run at the same speed, in the same direction,which is toward the meat removing pressure rollers 16 and 18. It hasbeen found desirable to have the legs introduced at a pointsubstantially at 50 between the two belts, and, with the shafts 43 and44 ofiset as indicated in FIGURE 1, it is relatively easy to do this.When this has been done the legs are moved forwardly at considerablespeed and during their travel are straightened out by the pressure ofthe belts and the side division members 51 which separate each of thegroups of belts and side frame members 14. It is very desirable that thelegs be straightened out and presented to the meat extracting rollerswith the pointed tip foremost, but more particularly it is desired thatthe dilferent joints of the leg be substantially axially aligned so asto minimize resistance to movement of the joints of the legs between therollers because considerable resistance can occur if the successivejoints are not aligned. Belts 46 and 48 are driven in their properdirection by the chain 52 which is driven by a separate sprocket on thereduction gear output shaft 27.

Completing the guiding means are resilient guide members, illustrated inFIGURES 1 and 13 in side elevation, and in FIGURES 2 and 6 in top planview, FIGURE 6 showing the parts on an enlarged scale. Here it will benoted that each unit has a fixed member 56 which is secured to a pillar57 at one end and to a transverse rod 58 at the other end. The resilientguide members, as 69 and 61, are secured only to pillar 57 and areadditionally spring biased by springs 62 to provide a discharge openingfor the crab legs to pass through just prior to entering the pressurerollers as at 63. This opening is just wide enough to engage the smallerend of the crab leg and the guide members are thereafter spread as theleg portions of greater size pass through the device.

Feeding of a crab leg into the crotch of the rollers 16 and 13 is bestaccomplished when the resilient roller facings substantially enclose theengaged portion of the crab leg, and it follows that if two crab legswere to be fed to the rollers too closely side by side sufiicientwrap-around engagement to insure proper feeding of both crab legsbetween the rollers might not be effected. Completing the leg-processingportion of the equipment is a water supply pipe 64. To this pipe aresecured a plurality of nozzles preferably mounted on a short length offlexible tubing so that the whole unit 65 can be adjusted accurately sothat the water directed in between the two rolls, on the feeding side,will be sufiicient to wash out any meat that might be deposited on thelower roll and to wash it into the meat collecting trough 32. This is avery desirable feature as it washes off any particle of meat from abroken or defective shell which may become loosened from the main columnof meat. Otherwise, if this meat is allowed to go between the rollsthere is a degree of contamination, loss of meat and interference withthe satisfactory operation of the rolls on subsequently presented legs.

Referring to FIGURES 4 and 5, there is illustrated in the upper portionof FIGURE 4 the belt feeding means for the large diameter crab legknuckles and pincer legs or claws. The rollers themselves, inasmuch asthey are handling large pieces of crab legs and the like, are preferablyof a larger diameter and experience to date indicates that a five inchdiameter will handle the claws and knuckle portions of the same legsthat are handled so satisfactorily by a four inch diameter roller. Withthis increased diameter it is possible to have an increased thickness ofthe covering and it has been further found that it is very importantthat the shorter pieces be carried at sufiicient speed and be sopresented to the rollers that they will be satisfactorily engaged withcertainty. A feeding belt arrangement can carry the properly orientedparts and discharges them at suflicient speed so that they will jumpacross the gap between the end of the belts and the rollers. This gap isrequired in order to provide space for the crab meat that is expressedfrom the shells to fall downwardly into the meat trough 32a and so thatthe shells will be recovered in the shell trough 33a. To insure thatlarger parts will be definitely engaged between the rollers it has beenfound desirable to have the rollers spaced apart slightly to provide amore receptive V opening 67 and for average larger king crab parts, suchas the knuckles and claws, a half-inch spacing is adequate. The lowerroller 66 is mounted on a transverse shaft 68 and the upper roller 69 ismounted upon the transverse shaft 70. Similarly to the crab leg rollers,shaft 68 is a block bearing that slides down the slot 22a until thelower end is reached, limiting any further movement. Shaft 79, asbefore, also has a sliding bearing block which is normally used with aspacer between it and the bearing block of shaft 68 so that thehold-down screw 24a will hold the rollers as before against thepossibility of their being spread apart in use.

Referring to FIGURE 5, which is a fragmentary View. showing only thebelts and the belt drive and guiding means for the sake of clarity,there is shown a transverse shaft 72 which is driven by a suitable motorM2 belt or chain means indicated generally at 73. Shaft 72 is mounted ateach end on suitable bearings 74 and 75, the bearings not being shown inthis diagrammatic view. Disposed in spaced relationship upon shaft 72are a plurality of belt pulleys 76 disposed to revolve about ahorizontal axis and to provide the driving means for the plurality ofbelts forming the conveying means for the leg knuckles and the crabclaws. While any number of belts may be used, it has been foundconvenient to have a lesser number of conveying channels that are usedin the leg portion and as a result three coacting pairs of belts as 78and 79 have been shown throughout the drawings. Each belt has its owndrive pulley 76 which is mounted for revolution about a horizontal axis.Spaced inwardly but reasonably close to shaft 72 are two guide sheaveswhich act in cooperative pairs as 80 and 82. These have the effect ofchanging the position of the crab engaging runs of the belts 78 and 79from a horizontal position to a vertical position. As a consequence ofthe conversion by sheaves 80 and 82, the end pulleys for the belts,indicated at 83 and 84-, are disposed to revolve about vertical axes. Tocounteract any tendency for sheaves 80 and 82 to crowd belts 78 and 79off their drive pulleys 76, revolvable stops 81 are provided for eachbelt. This arrangement provides the channel 85 for carrying the shellfish parts, and in our drawings three duplicate channels with theircoacting pairs of belts are provided.

What we claim is:

1. The method of removing meat from a king crab leg, which comprisesforming an opening in the shell adjacent to the large end of a king crableg, and applying yielding pressure against the shell of such legprogressively from 7 its small end toward its large end, and therebyprogressively flattening the leg shell sutficiently to expel the meatfrom the leg shell lengthwise out of such opening.

2. In the method defined in claim 1, projecting a spray of water againstmeat expelled from the leg shell opening for washing the meat away fromthe shell.

3. The method of removing meat from a king crab leg, which comprisessevering the leg from its root knuckle at a location adjacent to suchknuckle to provide an opening in the shell adjacent to the large end ofa king crab leg, and applying yielding pressure against the shell ofsuch leg progressively from its small end toward its large end, andthereby progressively flattening the leg shell sufliciently to expel themeat from the leg shell lengthwise out of such opening.

4. The method of removing meat from a king crab leg, which comprisesforming an opening in the shell adjacent '10 the large end of a kingcrab leg, pressing against the leg shell yielding pressure surfacesconverging toward the small end of the leg, and progressively movingsuch surfaces toward each other from the small end of the leg toward itslarge end and thereby progressively flattening the leg shellsufliciently to expel the meat from the leg shell lengthwise out of suchopening.

5. The method of removing meat from a king crab leg,

which comprises forming an opening in the shell adjacent to the largeend of a king crab leg, and applying roller-type pressure against theshe-ll of such leg progressively from its small end toward its largeend, and thereby progressively flattening the leg shell sufliciently toexpel the meat from the leg shell lengthwise out of such opening.

6. The method of removing meat from a king crab leg, which comprisessevering the leg irom its root knuckle at a location adjacent to suchknuckle to provide an open-.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,660,754 Roshko Dec. 1, 1953 2,683,281 Yanus et a1. July 13, 19542,987,759 Lapeyre et a1. June 13, 1961

1. THE METHOD OF REMOVING MEAT FROM A KING CRAB LEG, WHICH COMPRISESFORMING AN OPENING IN THE SHELL ADJACENT TO THE LARGE END OF A KING CRABLEG, AND APPLYING YIELDING PRESSURE AGAINST THE SHELL OF SUCH LEGPROGRESSIVELY FROM ITS SMALL END TOWARD ITS LARGE END, AND THEREBYPROGRESSIVELY FLATTENING THE LEG SHELL SUFFICIENTLY TO EXPEL THE MEATFROM THE LEG SHELL LENGTHWISE OUT OF SUCH OPENING.